Retired WSU coach Daugherty dies

June Daugherty, who helmed the Washington State women’s basketball team for 11 seasons as part of a 29-year head coaching career in the Pacific Northwest, died Monday at her home in Boise, according to multiple sources Wednesday.

She would have turned 65 this coming Wednesday.

Daugherty had been shadowed by heart problems throughout her WSU career, most alarmingly with a cardiac arrest that almost took her life scarcely a month after she took the job in 2007.

She never saw the win-loss success she’d envisioned in Pullman, but in previous gigs she compiled a 191-139 record in 11 seasons at Washington and, before that, 123-74 in seven years at Boise State.

Her husband and former assistant, Mike, alluded to his wife’s caring, upbeat nature in a Facebook post Wednesday in which he invoked the acronym for “greatest of all time.”

“She was the GOAT because of the way she treated everyone,” he wrote. “Those who knew her know how special and spectacular she was. She was the greatest mother, lover and friend. She cared for her family, my mother, her friends, my family, her players, and all who came into contact with her no matter how they treated her. She had zero intolerance except for those who were hateful and intolerant.”

That philosophy was evident in the diversity of her rosters, which included standouts from Bulgaria (Borislava Hristova), Hawaii (Chanelle Molina), Portugal (Maria Kostourkova) and elsewhere. That international approach to recruiting has continued under successor Kamie Ethridge, who’s entering her fourth season.

“June was a people person as a coach,” Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer, for whom Daugherty served as an assistant early in her career, told The Associated Press. “She was a great recruiter and an extremely positive person.”

Daugherty inherited a long-struggling WSU program and led the Cougars to three appearances in the Women’s National Invitation Tournament, including in 2015 to cap a 17-15 campaign, their first winning record in 19 years. They reached the semifinal round of the WNIT in 2017.

Early in 2011, the Cougars posted back-to-back conference wins for the first time in a decade. In December 2013, they upset No. 10 Nebraska at Lincoln, Neb., for their first-ever win against a top-10 opponent.

Daugherty’s health took a turn for the worse during the 2017-18 season, and she took an indefinite leave of absence in January 2018, handing the interim reins to her husband. She announced her retirement two months later.

She wound up 130-218 at Wazzu, leaving her 443-431 in her career.

“I leave WSU with lifelong friends and many special memories,” she wrote in a Lewiston Tribune guest column at the time. “And I am so thankful to WSU for providing me this amazing journey. All the best to each and every one of you. Keep supporting this great university and the Cougar basketball team. Once a Coug, always a Coug.”

At Washington, Daugherty led the Huskies to the NCAA tournament in six of her 11 years, reaching the Elite Eight in 2001. She was fired after losing to Iowa State in the first round of the tournament in 2007, only to land the Cougar job a few weeks later.

The next month, already diagnosed with cardiomyopathy, she was visiting a clinic in Everett, Wash., when she suffered a cardiac arrest in her car in the parking lot. Her daughter hastened inside to alert doctors, whose treatment included the installation of a defibrillator to keep Daugherty’s heart beating regularly.

Originally from Columbus, Ohio, Daugherty played basketball for Ohio State and was an assistant at Kent State before joining the Stanford staff. She began her head coaching career at Boise State in 1989.

“One of the hallmark coaches at BSU,” retired Boise State radio announcer Paul J. Schneider tweeted Wednesday. “Taught me a lot about women’s hoops. RIP coach.”

Daugherty is survived by her husband and their adult twin children, Doc and Breanne, as well as by June’s parents.

Grummert may be contacted at daleg@lmtribune.com or (208) 848-2290.